The Pass
The Pass or Cajon Pass is a region of New California encompassing the Victor Valley and surrounding San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains, and serves as the setting of Fallout: New California. Background Situated at the meeting point of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, the Cajon Pass is cut through by the Long 15 as its passes from the ruin of San Bernardino to Barstow. Prior to the Great War, it was home to several large towns, including Union City and Athens in the Victor Valley and the towns of Big Bear Lake and Pinehaven in nearby San Bernardino Mountains. These towns were particularly hard hit by an outbreak of New Plague in 2053. On October 23, 2077, the region was not as heavily devastated by nuclear attacks and fallout as nearby Los Angeles, suffering two direct nuclear strikes - one along Interstate 15 just north of the city of San Bernardino, and another in the mountains, cutting off Interstate 138 west of Pinehaven. Inhabitants During the great war, a hardened group of military Survivalists and other refugees sheltered in the Athen-Tec, surviving the bombs, and emerged several decades later. The Survivalists quickly dominated the surrounding tribes and raiders of the Pass, occupying the old pre-war communities of Big Bear Lake, Athens, and Union City, establishing a military autocracy ruled by the original Survivalist families supported by large populations of slaves and tribal or raider servants, surviving on fresh water filtered from Big Bear Lake and fed by large slave fields of maize and fungus grown in the mines. With an army of over 5000 well-trained paramilitary soldiers, they faced little threat from outside forces, and came to trade with towns as far away as New Reno, using their control of the largest source of gold and uranium outside Redding and Broken Hills to ensure their neighbors left them alone. Another tribe native to the region were the Psychos, a confederation of violent Raider tribes whom had tamed mutated spiders to provide them with healing and drugs, to counter the parasitic bloatflies native to the Pass. Eventually these tribes were incorporated into the Survivalist's "Raider Alliance," their emblem of the skull and hubcap becoming the symbol of the Alliance. In 2157, the inhabitants of Vault 18 broke their vault's seal and emerged into the Pass, sending several scouting expeditions out. They swiftly came into conflict with the Survivalist's Raider Alliance, and as a response founded the Wasteland Scouts to defend their vault from external threats. After the destruction of the Unity in 2162, a large group of Super Mutants, refugees from the Master's army, under the leadership of Papa Bug Bear, entered the Pass, and took up residence in Fort Daggerpoint Air Force Base, largely keeping to themselves, with only occasional trade with the Alliance for slaves, particularly those untainted by radiation. They would become known as "demons" to locals of the area. In 2200, Vault 18, facing overpopulation issues and fears of an earthquake damaging the vault, sent out colony expeditions into the Pass and nearby Hesperia, Crestline Valley, and San Bernardino - these colonists would adopt a tribal lifestyle and forget their vault heritage to protect its location. These tribes became known as the Exodite or Star Tribes, and quickly came into conflict with the Alliance and Fort Daggerpoint super mutants. As the 22nd century began, the Pass had become entirely surrounded by the growing New California Republic. Lying directly along the Long 15, control of it was vital to securing NCR trade routes between the Hub and Dayglow, as well as securing access to southern Nevada and the valuable resources said to lie there. Desite being practically next door to the Hub, the heavily-entrenched Survivalists presented too much of a potential waste of lives for the NCR to risk war, resulting in a tenuous "peace" with the Alliance broken by the occasional skirmish. Category:Locations